Posted
by
samzenpus
on Sunday October 14, 2012 @03:37PM
from the have-some-cash dept.

hypnosec writes "Amazon, in an email to Kindle owners, has a revealed that following the settlement in the eBook price fixing lawsuit customers will be entitled to refunds between 30 cents and $1.32 on each book purchased. If the $69 million settlement is approved, the funds will be provided as credits to customers directly in their accounts. Users may request checks for the amount of credit that has been applied to their accounts. 'If the Court approves the settlements, the account credit will appear automatically and can be used to purchase Kindle books or print books,' wrote Amazon in the email."

According to the email I received from Amazon, they will send a check if you request one:

"You also have the option to receive a check instead of your credit. You can request a check by calling 1-866-621-4153, or going to the Settlement website listed below, and clicking on the Check Request Option link. Be sure to reference the Settlement ID number found at the bottom of this email. The Settlement website is:http://www.EBookAGSettlements.com"

To be fair, many of those cheques will be lumped together, as users have likely purchased more than just one or two books. However, the point remains that they will send you a cheque if you ask for one through their phone service or website.

b) If you would have bought those books anyways, Amazon will have lost the money you would have spent on them.

Right on the first point. As to Amazon losing money though... no they won't, the money is coming from the publishers, not Amazon, so if you spend it on Amazon they at worst are getting the same money you might've spent on those books without the refund.

I am only familiar with KDP, the royalty for which is 70% (unless for some reason you dont allow lending). I assume publishing houses agree on better deals, than KDP. So yeah, I would expect most money to go to authors (and publishers).

If the court approves the settlements, the publishers will pay for e-book refunds that will be applied automatically to the Amazon.com accounts of eligible customers. Customers can use the refunds to purchase Kindle books or print books or request a check for the amount of the refund.

Why make millions and give your customers a good value, when you can make tens of millions and rip everyone off?
It's so stupid a fool could see what's wrong, but unfortunately these companies didn't have any fools on the board of directors.

This. At some point there was a shift from providing good business to profiting by any means. I blame management schools or something because it is very widespread and endemic amongst managerial types. I get that people are trying to drive the numbers as high as possible, but at some point ethics was taken out of the equation of the 'cost to do business' and instead replaced by fines/fees/settlements/etc arising from things usually caused by ethics violations.

But there are a bunch of other considerations, like going to jail, having to take the time to pay out, and having the police find your drug trafficking operation, that aren't being figured in here. This is an analogy of what the business types are thinking.

So are you suggesting that the Amazon bosses *are* or *aren't* concerned about the police finding out about their secret drug trafficking operation?

Actually, they have a special "Drug Trafficking Department" page, but given the amount of time it takes to find *anything* on Amazon these days, I suspect that they're confident the police are unlikely to stumble across it;-)

This money doesn't come from Amazon.It's from the publishing houses that colluded on price issues following Apples demand.Amazon is just delivering the settlement money to its customers as Amazon knows who bought what.

This. At some point there was a shift from providing good business to profiting by any means.

Nah. Profiting by any means is as old as business itself, up to and including literally ambushing and robbing customers. It isn't good business, however, if your idea of good business involves repeat customers and you don't hold a monopoly. Remember: give a man a fish, and he'll sponge off you for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can bleed him for the rest of his life, because you own the lake that you rent him access to, you bloody conniving bastard!

The price fixing isn't a significant for purchases in comparison to the need to stop collusion and monopolies. Companies of a certain size should be required to support operating systems and devices in a standards complaint way. No one operating system or device should be favored. Digital restrictions should be illegal.

Do the courts even make a real attempt to punish corporations any more? The cash really goes the lawyers and the customers get the bread crumbs.

I tell you what, if want just, let the lawyers get reimbursed in the same portions and methods as their customers. If Amazon rips you off $100 and you get a $0.10 coupon for it. The lawyer who asks to get paid $1 million dollars should get $10,000 in coupons for purchasing e-books.

I bet you would see some justice. If not, lawyers getting screwed like, well that

In this case, Amazon wasn't the one price fixing e-books, it was the publishers. The money is just being returned via amazon who went with the account credit method. It saves a lot of processing fees, and most people who buy books on Amazon are going to buy other stuff on Amazon anyways. It isn't like Sony giving out $1.00 to be spent on more Sony CDs because of something Sony did. Amazon wanted lower prices just as much as the people buying the books.

Unlike physical retailers, amazon knows exactly who you are and which books you bought, so they can credit you back exactly instead of making you mail in receipts you would have probably thrown away years ago.

With Apple and Google being to other big (or coming) players in this market you don't need to worry to much about Amazon succeding.

For Amazon selling books is a main part of their business. So they can not sell books below price for too long.For Apple and Google selling books is just one small part of their portfolio. They could survive a lot longer subsidising book sales then Amazon could.

Amazon created a hostile environment for books in the $10-$19.99 range. At $0.99-$9.99, you get 70% of the sale price as royalties and Amazon keeps 30%; whereas at $10+ you get 35% and Amazon keeps 65%. That means that the profits at $20 are equal to the profits at $9.99, and the profits at $10 are equal to the profits at $5. The market effect of a price point of $20 instead of $9.99 is huge: the books cost twice as much, people can buy half as many, and if they're buying from

Are you sure about that? I haven't sold anything through them, but I thought I understood the 65% was only applied at the low end - books under $2 or $3, and that it was 35% for everything above that point. I don't ever remember hearing about another transition higher up the price scale.

My system makes a little sense, because there's some fixed costs that need to be made up for on really cheap items, hence the higher percentage for really cheap items. A pricing scheme like you cite wouldn't have any real

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A29FL26OKE7R7B [amazon.com] it's 20% below any other price now. Used to be up to $9.99. Now I guess a $20 book can get 70% at $16, and an $8 paperback can be sold for $6.40 at 70%. The big trick is if you sell your book as a paperback ever, for $8, that's your base price and you need to be 20% below that--never mind that its main distribution is a $25 hardcover! So yeah.

Perhaps read the story? Amazon isn't the defendant in the case, and Amazon isn't actually giving out any money. They're simply disbursing funds on behalf of the real defendants, Harper Collins, Hachette, and Simon and Schuster.

The real story though, is that they've finally destroyed the Agency Model that Apple introduced to force Amazon to charge whatever the publishers decided they wanted to charge, which means Amazon will finally be able to reduce the price of eBooks to historic levels.

The real story though, is that they've finally destroyed the Agency Model that Apple introduced to force Amazon to charge whatever the publishers decided they wanted to charge, which means Amazon will finally be able to reduce the price of eBooks to historic levels.

Do the courts even make a real attempt to punish corporations any more?

Everything you said after this doesn't take away from the fact that the corporation that broke the law IS paying out. Are the lawyers 'representing' the class members making out with an excessively large share of it? Yes. But that doesn't make it any less of a punishment of the corporation.

And this is what the lawsuit was about. Apple and publishers colluded to drive the prices up and keep Amazon and B&N from dropping their e-book prices. You should actually be celebrating this. For once the government worked.

This is only true for books that are already in existence or new books that are not giong through the publishing system at all. For new works, especially large technical books/creating/reviewing/editing/... the material is a ot of the initial cost so while I'd expect an ebook to be cheaper than the dead-tree version I wouldn't expect it to be significantly cheaper upon first release. Even converting an existing older book to ebook formats (or an existing ebook to other ebook formats) is not free of work - s

I know you are just an AC but try to keep up. The summary states "Users may request checks for the amount of credit that has been applied to their accounts." The article directs you to a website where you can request a check by the settlement attorneys. You do know that these attorneys charge the losing party for all costs associated with this don't you? If you've ever dealt with an attorney you would. They charge for every single call, sheet of paper, ink pen, staple, stamp and what have you. I bet y

This would only make sense if I were never going to buy another ebook again. Otherwise you are advocating me spending the time to demand a check, open a check, sign a check, driving to the bank and depositing it, and put the funds back into Amazon to buy books. My costs will far outweight the costs of them automatically processing a measly 30 cent check. (Not to mention the waste involved in that offends my sensibilities.)

Really. Just throw the check away. You'd be out 30 cents and there out a bunch of dollars involved in processing and mailing it to you. How simple does it get really? Now magnify by all the tens of thousands of checks they have to send out and you see where they start to really hurt.

People who use slashdot also tend to read, people who read then to buy books off amazon

Considering how many here (of all places) who seem not to understand when and when not to use an apostrophe, the difference between the verbs "lose" and "loose", have no ability to discern between there, they're, and their, I don't think your logic holds up. Just because you read slashdot doesn't mean you read actual books.

the funds will be provided as credits to customers directly in their accounts. Users may request checks for the amount of credit that has been applied to their accounts.

Wow, that's a torturous couple of sentences. How about "the funds will be credited directly to customers' accounts, or by check if requested." Still, credit to the submitter for not just blindly copying and pasting straight from the article.

"'f the Court approves the settlements

What is this, missing initial letter day? Just had the exact same thing in another summary.

What is this, missing initial letter day? Just had the exact same thing in another summary.

That is an error due to copy-and-paste oversignts: A sentence boundary like the "I" is easy to miss with the mouse, especially if it is a period or an I. On my smartphone's touch screen, selecting a block of text to copy is a huge pain. Must start over until the right start AND end are selected.

I hope that got resolved in newer versions of Android, but my provider won't update mine anyway. Gone out the window are "intuitive" desktop tricks like selection-pushing a page up and down when your "cursor" signals

Right, on the smartphones, the cursor when selecting is often just a vertical bar (Identical to I in Arial) and not even the I-beam shape which is slightly distinguished from the I, especially a non-serif I. When selecting on a smartphone you can't tell whether the cursor is before or after that initial I without a careful look.

It appears that Apple is also involved with this settlement. Here's the email I just got:

Benefits from an Attorney General E-books Settlement Fund

Para una notificación en Español, llamar o visitar nuestro website.

[Settlement ID Number]

Records indicate that you are eligible for a payment from Settlements reached by the State Attorneys General with electronic book publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster. The Settlements resolve an antitrust lawsuit about the price of electronic books. Apple Inc. (“Apple”) has not been sued in this case. It is assisting in providing this notice as a service to its customers.

What the Settlements Provide

The Settlements create a $69 million fund for payments to consumers who purchased qualifying electronic books from April 1, 2010 through May 21, 2012. If the Court approves the Settlements, eligible consumers like you will receive credits to your iTunes account. The credit can be used on any purchases of electronic books. The amount of your payment has been determined based on the qualifying electronic book purchases identified by Apple in your iTunes account.

How to Receive your Benefit

Because you are pre-qualified, you do not need to do anything at this time to receive your credit. If the Court approves the Settlements, you will receive another email letting you know how to activate your credit. Once you activate the credit, it will be applied to your account by Apple. (If you bought electronic books from more than one retailer, you may receive notices with different instructions about whether you will receive a credit or need to file a Claim Form for that retailer. You will have a separate claim for each retailer and you should follow the specific instructions from each one.)

You also have the option to receive a check instead of your credit. You can request a check by calling 1-866-621-4153, or going to the Settlement website listed below, and clicking on the Check Request Option link. Be sure to reference the Settlement ID number found at the top of this email. The Settlement website is:

www.EBookAGSettlements.com

Your Other Rights

You can choose to exclude yourself from the Settlements and keep your right to sue on your own. If you exclude yourself, you can't receive any benefits from the Settlements. If you don't exclude yourself, you can submit objections about the Settlements.

Your written Exclusion Form or objections must be postmarked by December 12, 2012. Please visit the Settlement website for detailed information on how to submit a valid Exclusion Form or objection.

A separate lawsuit against two other publishers and Apple continues and is set for a trial in 2013. Apple denies the allegations in that lawsuit. Your rights in the separate suit are not affected by any action you take in regards to these Settlements.

The Court will hold a hearing on February 8, 2013 at 10 a.m. to consider whether to approve the Settlements. You or your own lawyer may ask to appear and speak at the hearing.

For more detailed information:Call 1-866-621-4153 or Visit www.EBookAGSettlements.com

Actually this all started because of Apple wanting to try and monopolize the e-book market. They created an 'Agency Pricing' format that precluded other companies from selling e-books at a level lower than Apple's prices and if they didn't agree to this they could not sell books from that publisher.

Lawyers get Billions to buy an island and have solid gold audi cars. The people ACTUALLY harmed get nothing at all.

Why don't class action lawsuits have a cap on what he lawyers can make? They should be capped at $300.00 an hour or $500,000.00 whichever is smaller, before taxes.

This has nothing to do with lawyers involved in a class action lawsuit. This is 100% to do with Apple and Five Book Publishers being a bunch of evil crooks...they formed a cartel to fix prices, hurting the free market and the consumer. Its about the "U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division" investigating Apple and the five publishers for two years, and getting them to reimburse money stolen by Apple from customers, and they have been told not to conspire for a further 5 years. Interestingly they do

Fine, cap it - hopefully that will result in the number of class action lawsuits going down (a win-win!).

Remember, the "class" don't hire the lawyers, the lawyers are committing to the risk all on their own, no ones going to cover their costs if the lawsuit fails. So why should it be capped? If you want a higher rate of return, you can always opt out of the class action and bring your own lawsuit, but you are going to have to cover the risk yourself as well...

But they aren't raised by the "class" - which is my point. People routinely bitch on here about the lawyers getting huge payouts while the class participants get next to nothing, when its pretty clear which one of those two is bearing all the risks. If you don't like the class action method, you are welcome to take the risk on yourself and take the matter to court privately...

Also, its unlikely that major overarching judgements that come out of class actions (such as this one - the death of a particular b

Right. You'd have to bring suit, get your $25, pay your lawyer $400. Bring suit, get your $25, pay your lawyer $400. Everyone has to do this so they have to pay their lawyers a lot of lawyer fees and pay out money. In the end, you wind up battling the for legal fees which you can't always extract.

No it's just entitlement. It's like this: Jimmy kicked dirt in your face so you go bitching that Jimmy is bad. Jimmy's mum punishes Jimmy. Jimmy can't come out to play now. And you're like, wait, what the fuck? HEY! HEY!!!! WHAT THE FUCK JIMMY'S MOM! YOU BITCH WHERE'S MY ICE CREAM!!!

As a Canadian, I wonder how this will work out.Currently, the price of many mainstream/popular eBooks exceed (sometimes greatly) the $CAD price of their paperback counterpart.The paperback price is also $2-3+ higher than the US counterpart, despite the CAD being at par or higher than the USD. The (lame) argument for this has traditionally been the extra costs for shipping the books to Canada etc.

So if this reduces the overall eBook price to something reasonable, will I as a Canadian be able to buy an eBook